Botanical park preserves Bali's ceremonial plants

Botanical park preserves Bali's ceremonial plants

I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Bedugul, Bali

A narrow concrete pathway took us deeper into the woods where lofty trees embraced one another, forming a green archway that filtered the glare of the afternoon sun.

The soft moss that blanketed most of the tree trunks made the woods look like a thick line of velvety pillars.

At a quick glance, this patch of woods was no different to the larger forest that surrounded it. But further inspection revealed that it housed special plants.

Next to the pathway were two young frangipani (Michelia champaca) trees while in the corner, amid a heap of dry leaves, were a pandanus tree, a pucuk shrub (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) and a tall betel palm, all of which are commonly used in Balinese Hindu offerings and rituals.

Nestling inside the spacious, 157.5-hectare Eka Karya Botanical Park in Bedugul, some 60 kilometers north of Denpasar, the woods are the pride of the park.

"The woods house a collection of Balinese Hindu ceremonial plants that we have been meticulously collecting and nurturing for years. Needless to say, it is the only one of its kind in the country," spokesperson Wayan Mudarsa said.

He recalled that the idea of building a special collection of ceremonial plants was first conceived in 1997 by then head of the botanical park Ida Bagus Komang Arsana.

"The reason was quite simple. Other parks already had their signature collections so Pak Arsana thought that Eka Karya should also try to establish its own," he said.

For instance, Bogor Botanical Park prizes its cactus collection while the park at Cibodas boasts a rhododendron and eucalyptus collection, and Purwodadi a banana collection.

In 1998, a two-hectare plot of land next to the ancient Batu Meringgit temple was set aside for the special collection while the park staff searched the island for rare, ceremonial plants.

"We consulted books and interviewed numerous high priests and tukang banten (experts on making offerings) to identify the ceremonial plants and their habitat," Mudarsa recalled.

Fortunately, traditional communities on the island enthusiastically supported the initiative by donating plants to the park.

"However, for certain rare plants we still had to search far-flung corners of the island," he said.

For instance, to find majegau (Dysoxylum parasiticum), a plant from the kayu dewa (tree of the Gods) category, according to the ancient treatise, Taru Premana (The Power of The Trees), park staff spent many days exploring the rough terrain of the woods around the traditional Bali Aga village of Tenganan in eastern Bali.

Its faint fragrance makes majegau an ideal material for an effigy or shrine.

"Majegau is undoubtedly the collection's most prized and rarest acquisition," he said.

Now, thanks to the park's expert gardeners, there are hundreds of majegau trees adorning its lush landscape.

The park has also started a program of donating majegau trees to the neighboring traditional village, Desa Pekraman.

Currently, this special collection houses at least 130 species of ceremonial plants. The collection now totals 580 plants. They are divided into five major groups in accordance with Balinese Hindu ceremonies which have five different forms of Yadnya (offerings or sacrifices).

Yadnya are grouped into Dewa, Rsi, Pitra, Manusa and Bhuta -- respectively, the offerings made to the gods, sages, ancestors, man and the forces of nature.

Founded in 1959, Eka Karya Botanical Park currently houses a total of 14,686 plants of 2,090 different species. In addition to its ceremonial plant collection, the park also boasts a massive orchid collection of 2,991 plants of 204 species.